Derry City and Strabane: Walls, Waters, and the West
The name itself is contested. Nationalists say Derry; unionists say Londonderry. The council compromise — Derry City and Strabane District — sidesteps the full argument without resolving it. The city's 17th-century walls remain intact, a mile in circumference, the most complete set of plantation-era fortifications in Ireland. From the walls, you can look down into the Bogside — site of Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when British soldiers shot dead fourteen unarmed civil rights marchers. The Free Derry Corner gable wall and the murals that line Rossville Street memorialise that day and the broader Troubles experience of the nationalist community.
Derry was named UK City of Culture in 2013, a designation that brought investment and attention. The Peace Bridge, a cycle and pedestrian crossing over the River Foyle completed in 2011, physically links the predominantly nationalist Cityside with the largely unionist Waterside. Magee College, part of Ulster University, anchors the city's higher education presence, and there are long-standing plans to expand it significantly. Strabane, a small town on the Tyrone side of the border with Lifford in County Donegal, has struggled economically for decades — it once held the unwanted distinction of highest unemployment in the UK. The wider borough is deeply rural west of the Sperrins, with the Donegal border winding along its western and southern edges. Cross-border movement is constant and unrestricted; many residents work, shop, or socialise on the other side daily.
Show more
The name itself is contested. Nationalists say Derry; unionists say Londonderry. The council compromise — Derry City and Strabane District — sidesteps the full argument without resolving it. The city's 17th-century walls remain intact, a mile in circumference, the most complete set of plantation-era fortifications in Ireland. From the walls, you can look down into the Bogside — site of Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when British soldiers shot dead fourteen unarmed civil rights marchers. The Free Derry Corner gable wall and the murals that line Rossville Street memorialise that day and the broader Troubles experience of the nationalist community.
Derry was named UK City of Culture in 2013, a designation that brought investment and attention. The Peace Bridge, a cycle and pedestrian crossing over the River Foyle completed in 2011, physically links the predominantly nationalist Cityside with the largely unionist Waterside. Magee College, part of Ulster University, anchors the city's higher education presence, and there are long-standing plans to expand it significantly. Strabane, a small town on the Tyrone side of the border with Lifford in County Donegal, has struggled economically for decades — it once held the unwanted distinction of highest unemployment in the UK. The wider borough is deeply rural west of the Sperrins, with the Donegal border winding along its western and southern edges. Cross-border movement is constant and unrestricted; many residents work, shop, or socialise on the other side daily.
Country selected
Region selected
Optional — select or proceed
